men’s studies

Definition

Men’s studies are grounded in men’s movements and the common goal, shared with feminists, of creating a partnership in the gender framework of the 1970s and challenging accepted notions of masculinity and femininity. Yet feminist and men’s studies did not always share common epistemological concerns, as there was a constant possibility of co-optation and misuse of feminist knowledge. In the 1990s the renewed hegemonic masculinity was integrated into men’s studies, and today the epistemic background is still not without ambivalence, which is a sign of the transition of ‘masculinities’, and also a distancing from the latter in queer studies.